TRIB TALK

Saturday

Jun 27, 2009 at 12:01 AMJun 27, 2009 at 7:02 AM

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Jim Robertson, managing editor

“I had an epiphany this morning as I drove by some of those empty strip malls we keep letting people build in Columbia that nobody ever moves into. I always feel there must be some kind of a break for the city and a break for the developers, and actually they just sit there and they’re an eyesore. Columbia has an increased homeless population, so here’s the idea — and it can go nationwide. Those places are air-conditioned and heated year-round. Why not let the homeless live in the strip malls? Just put some cots in there. There’s got to be rules. They can actually create their own government. They have to keep the place clean and neat. No drinking or any drugs of any kind, no fighting or you’re expelled immediately. Even with the homeless, the leaders will come to the top. Should it ever happen that the store front gets rented, they have to move out. But think about that nationwide.”

“This is the Missouri Traveler. We just had a picnic, and we had plenty of sandwiches. For the guy who thinks gas prices just fluctuate depending on when they purchase new gas and when they run out, then explain to me why it is that in Columbia when the price of gas changes and goes up as it normally does, 10 cents, it does it miraculously through all the service stations throughout town at almost the same time. Are they all on the same exact schedule? It just seems too much of a coincidence.”

“The owner of Peppers opened the bar there because she wanted to be outside the city limits and allow smoking. They’ve advertised themselves as a smoking bar. Now they want to be in the city limits to get the police protection. We can’t annex every business that develops outside the city limits just because they’d rather have city police protection than county sheriff as their police protection.”

“Oh my gosh, I’ve been on vacation and come back to find out that people are still whining about the bicycle lanes. It’s not true that they don’t get used. I use them, and I see lots of other people use them. As we come into summer and fall, and when the students come back in August, there will be a lot more use of these bicycle lanes. And as has been said many times before in Trib Talk, each and every time one of us uses the bike lanes, it means we’re leaving our cars behind, making less pollution, lowering the cost of gasoline and leaving more room on the roads for you lazy couch potatoes who haven’t ridden a bike in 20 years or ever in your life.”

“The Missouri Traveler does not seem to understand much about basic economics, the law of supply and demand and the way our beautiful American capitalistic system works. Gasoline is a commodity. It’s provided by private corporations who can set the price at whatever they want. That’s how the system works. In fact, our previous president, George Bush, and his cohort Dick Cheney worked very, very hard to expand our free market economy so that it can work in a balanced, effective way and so that the oil companies can set their prices at whatever they want. This is capitalism. Free-market economy; it’s how it’s supposed to work. Get over it.”

“I’ve driven by Forum Boulevard and Stadium probably every day for 25 years. I have yet to see a bicycle there. It seems like the millions they spent on this intersection certainly could have been used for more policemen in this community. We really have a crime problem in town, and we need to use some of our money for those kinds of things.”

Robertson replies: No. 1, the money is earmarked for non-motorized transportation enhancement and can’t be used for any other purpose, including police protection. No. 2, maybe the reason you haven’t seen bikers at Forum and Stadium is precisely because it’s a dangerous intersection for them. Could be you’ll see more with the improvements. That’s the idea, anyway.

“I wonder if some our schools have heard of curb appeal. I was walking my dog past an elementary school on the north side and walked past a gigantic 30-foot dead tree. The sidewalk and driveway have weeds growing out of the cracks, cardboard boxes are falling out the Dumpsters. But one of the more irritating things was the American flag, which looked more like a rag that had been left out for the weekend. They’re supposed to have a light on them at night. They ought to be retired when they’re just faded and worn. Are our schools in trouble that much that they don’t care how they look?”

“Another person was robbed downtown by the parking garage. I’d like to find out where the newly formed police department is. Do they spend their time in restaurants on Broadway? Are they afraid to go down the side streets and the alleys and prevent these robberies, or do they just have 9-to-5 hours? Maybe they should reconsider and have an overnight patrol.”

“Is there no end to the bicycle madness in Columbia? If we’re going to be fined with a misdemeanor for honking at a bicycle who’s cutting across in front of us and obviously doesn’t see the 4,000-pound car that’s about to run over them, then I want the police giving tickets to the bicycle riders when they break the law, when they’re riding on the wrong side of the street as they often are, when they’re riding on the sidewalk as they often are, when they run stoplights.”

“Saturday’s front page article ‘Teaching method criticized’ was excellent. Having taught 38 years, I’ve seen teaching methods go in circles from teaching memorization to fun and games then back again. Now the classroom is almost a three-ring circus trying to entertain students. Memorization is good not only in math but other areas. As we grow older, don’t we enjoy poetry we learned when young?”

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